
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



y^""^-^^ 

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T h o m a s 
Jeffer son 

A Little Journey by 

Elbert Hubbard 

And an Address by 

Jo hn J, Lent z 

Being two attempts to help 
perpetuate the memory & 
pass along the influence 
of the Great American s^ 



Done into a Printed Book by The 
Roycrofters at their Shop which is 
in East Aurora, New York, U.S.A., 
in the Year Nineteen Hundred Six 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
TwoCoDles Received 

APR 20 1906 
COPY e. 



Copyright 

1906 

By Elbkrt Hubbard 



^S3. 



By G. P. Putnam's Sons 



Thomas Jefferson 




Thomas Jefferson 

[ILLIAM and Mary Col- 
lege was founded by the 
persons whose names it 
bears, in 1692. The foun- 
ders bestowed on it an 
endowment that would 
have been generous had there not 
been attached to it sundry strings in 
way of conditions. The intent was to 
make Indians Episcopalians, & white 
students clergymen ; and the assump- 
tion being that between the whites 
and the aborigines there was but little 
difference, the curriculum was an 
ecclesiastic medley. 
All the teachers were appointed by 
the Bishop of London, and the places 
were usually given to clergymen who 
were not needed in England. 
To this college, in 1760, came Thomas 
Jefferson, a tall, red-haired youth of 
seventeen. He had a sharp nose and a 
sharp chin ; and a youth having these 
has a sharp intellect — mark it well. 
€[ This boy had not been "sent " to 

1 



Thomas college. He came of his own accord 
Jefferson from his home at Shadwell, five days' 
horseback journey thru the woods ^ 
His father was dead and his mother, 
a rare gentle soul, an invalid. 
Death is not a calamity per se; nor is 
physical weakness necessarily a curse, 
for out of these seeming unkind con- 
ditions, nature often distils her finest 
products. The dying injunction of a 
father may impress itself upon a son 
as no example of right living ever can, 
and the physical disability of a mother 
may be an influence that works for 
excellence and strength ^ The last 
expressed wish of Peter Jefferson was 
that his son should be well educated, 
and attain to a degree of useful man- 
liness that the father had never been 
able to reach. And into the keeping 
of this fourteen-year-old youth the 
dying man, with the last flicker of 
his intellect, gave the mother, sisters, 
and baby brother. 

We often hear of persons who became 
aged in a single night, their hair turn- 
ing from dark to white, but I have 

2 



seen death thrust responsibihty upon Thomas 
a lad and make of him a man between Jefferson 
the rising of the sun and its setting. 
When we talk of right "environ- 
ment" and the " proper conditions " 
that should surround growing youth 
we fan the air with words, — there is 
no such thing as a universal right 
environment. 

An appreciative chapter might here 
be inserted concerning those beings 
who move about only in rolling chairs, 
who never see the winter landscape 
but through windows, and exert their 
gentle sway from an invalid's couch, 
to which the entire household or 
neighborhood come to confession or 
counsel. And yet I have small sym- 
pathy for the people who profession- 
ally enjoy poor health, and no man 
more than I reverences the Greek 
passion for physical perfection. But 
a close study of Jefferson's early life 
reveals the truth, that the death of 
his father and the physical weakness 
of his mother and sisters were factors 
that developed in him a gentle sense 

3 



Thomas of chivalry, a silken strength of will, 
Jefferson and a habit of independent thought 
and action that served him in good 
stead throughout a long life. 
Williamsburg was then the capital of 
Virginia. It contained only about a 
thousand inhabitants, but when the 
legislature was in session was very 
gay ^ ^ 

At one end of a wide avenue was the 
capitol, at the other end was the 
*' palace" of the Governor, and when 
the city of Washington was laid out 
it was modeled after Williamsburg. 
On Saturdays there were horse races 
along the ** Avenue"; every one 
gambled; cock-fights and dog-fights 
were regarded as manly diversions; 
there was much carousing at taverns, 
and often at private houses there were 
all-night dances where the rising sun 
found everybody but the servants 
plain drunk. 

At the college, both teachers and 
scholars were obliged to subscribe to 
the Thirty-nine Articles and to recite 
the Catechism. The atmosphere was 

4 



charged with theology. C[ Young Thomas 
Jefferson had never before even seen Jefferson 
a village of a dozen houses, and he 
looked upon this as a type of all cities. 
He thought about it, talked about it, 
wrote about it, and we now know that 
at this time his ideas concerning city 
versus country crystallized. 
Fifty years after, when he had come 
to know London and Paris, and had 
seen the chief cities of Christendom, 
he repeated the words he had written 
in youth, *' The hope of a nation lies 
in its tillers of the soil I " 
On his mother's side he was related 
to the "First Families," but caste 
and aristocracy had no fascination 
for him, and he then began forming 
those ideas of utility, simplicity and 
equality that time only strengthened. 
C[ His tutors and professors in college 
served chiefly as * ' horrible examples, * ' 
with the shining exception of Doctor 
Small. The friendship that ripened 
between this man and young Jeffer- 
son is an ideal example of what can 
be done through the personal touch. 



Thomas Men are only great as they excel in 
Jefferson sympathy ; and the difference between 
sympathy and imagination has not 
yet been shown us. 
Doctor Small encom-aged the young 
farmer from the hills to think and 
express himself. He did not endeavor 
to set him straight or explain every- 
thing for him, or correct all of his 
vagaries, or demand that he should 
memorize rules. He gave his affec- 
tionate sympathy to the boy who, 
with a sort of feminine tenderness, 
clung to the only person who under- 
stood him. 

To Doctor Small, pedigree and his- 
tory unknown, let us give the credit 
of being first in the list of friends that 
gave bent to the mind of Thomas 
Jefferson. John Burk, in his History 
of Virginia, refers to Professor Small 
thus : ' * He was not any too orthodox 
in his opinions. ' ' And here we catch 
a glimpse of a formative influence in 
the life of Jefferson that caused him 
to turn from the letter of the law and 
cleave to the spirit that maketh alive. 
6 



After school hours the tutor and the Thomas 
student walked and talked, and on Jefferson 
Saturdays and Sundays went on ex- 
cursions thru the woods; and to the 
youth there was given an impulse for 
a scientific knowledge of birds and 
flowers, and for the host of life that 
thronged the forest. And when the 
pair had strayed so far beyond the 
town that darkness gathered and stars 
came out, they conversed of the won- 
ders of the sky. 

The true scientist has no passion for 
killing things. He says with Thoreau, 
*'To shoot a bird is to lose it." Pro- 
fessor Small had the gentle instinct 
that respects life, and he refused to 
take that which he could not give. 
To his youthful companion he would 
impart the secret of enjoying things 
without the passion for possession and 
the lust of ownership. 
There is a myth abroad that college 
towns are intellectual centers ; but 
the number of people in a college 
town (or any other) who really think, 
is very few. 

7 



Thomas Williamsburg was gay, and, this 
Jefferson much said, it is needless to add it 
was not intellectual. But Professor 
Small was a thinker, and so was Gov- 
ernor Fauquier; and these two were 
firm friends, although very unlike in 
many ways. And to " the palace " of 
the courtly Fauquier, Small took his 
young friend Jefferson. Fauquier was 
often a master of the revels, but after 
his seasons of dissipation he turned 
to Small for absolution and comfort. 
At these times he seemed a paragon 
of excellence to Jefferson. To the 
grace of the French he added the 
earnestness of the English, and he 
quoted Pope, and talked of Swift, 
Addison and Thompson. Fauquier 
and Jefferson became friends, altho 
more than a score of years and a 
world of experience separated them. 
Jefferson caught a little of Fauquier's 
grace, love of books, and delight in 
architecture. But Fauquier helped 
him most by gambling away all of 
his ready money and getting drunk 
and smoking strong pipes with his 



feet on the table. And Jefferson then Thomas 
vowed he would never handle a card, Jefferson 
nor use tobacco, nor drink intoxica- 
ting liquors. And in conversation with 
Small he anticipated Buckle by say- 
ing, "To gain leisure, wealth must 
first be secured; but once leisure is 
gained, more people use it in the pur- 
suit of pleasure than employ it in 
acquiring knowledge." 




Thomas ^I^^VcS^AD Jefferson lived in a 
Jefferson J&|iSST«i great city he would have 
been an architect. His 
practical nature, his mas- 
tery of mathematics, his 
love of proportion, and 
his passion for music, are the basic 
elements that make a Christopher 
Wren. But Virginia, in 1765, offered 
no temptation to ambitions along 
that line; log houses with a goodly 
** crack" were quite good enough, 
and if the domicile proved too small 
the plan of the first was simply dupli- 
cated. Yet a career of some kind 
young Jefferson knew awaited him. 
C, About this time the rollicking 
Patrick Henry came along. Patrick 
played the violin and so did Thomas. 
These two young men had first met 
on a musical basis. Some otherwise 
sensible people hold that musicians 
are shallow and impractical; and I 
know one man who declares that truth 
and honesty and uprightness never 
dwelt in a professional musician's 
heart; and further, that the tribe is 

10 



totally incapable of comprehending Thomas 
the difference between meum & tuumi Jefferson 
But this same man claims that actors 
are rascals who have lost their own 
characters in the business of playing 
they are somebody else. And yet I '11 
explain for the benefit of the captious 
that although Thomas Jefferson and 
Patrick Henry both fiddled, they 
never did and never would fiddle 
while Rome burned. Music was with 
them a pastime, not a profession. 
C[ As soon as Patrick Henry arrived 
at Williamsburg he sought out his 
old friend Thomas Jefferson, because 
he liked him — and to save tavern bill. 
And Patrick announced that he had 
come to Williamsburg to be admitted 
to the bar. 

" How long have you studied law?" 
asked Jefferson. 

*'Oh, for six weeks last Tuesday," 
was the answer. 

Tradition has it that Jefferson advised 
Patrick to go home and study at least 
a fortnight more before making his 
application. But Patrick declared that 

11 



Thomas the way to learn law is to practise it, 

Jefferson and he surely was right. Most young 

lawyers are really never aware of how 

little law they know until they begin 

to practise. 

Patrick Henry was duly admitted, 
although George Wythe strenuously 
protested. Then Patrick went back 
home to tend bar (the other kind) for 
Laban, his father-in-law, for full four 
years. He studied hard and practised 
a little betimes — and his is the only 
instance of a bar- keeper acquiring 
wisdom while following his calling, 
that history records; and so for the 
encouragement of budding youth I 
write it down. 



12 




WITHOUT doubt it was Thomas 
the example of Patrick Jefferson 
Henry that caused Jef- 
erson to adopt his pro- 
fession. But it was the 
Uterary side of law that 
first attracted him — not the practice 
of it.' As a speaker he was singularly 
deficient, a slight physical malforma- 
tion of the throat giving him a very 
poor and uncertain voice .^ But he 
studied law, and after all, it does not 
make much difference what a man 
studies — all knowledge is related, and 
the man who studies anything if he 
keeps at it will become learned. 
So Jefferson studied in the office of 
George Wythe, and absorbed all that 
Fauquier had to offer, and grew wise 
in the beneficent companionship of 
Doctor Small. From a red-headed, 
lean, lank, awkward mountaineer, he 
developed into a gracious and grace- 
ful young man who has been described 
as ' ' auburn-haired. ' ' And the evolu- 
tion from being red-headed to having 
red hair, and from that to being 

13 



Thomas auburn-haired proves he was the gen- 
Jefferson uine article. Still he was not hand- 
some — that word cannot be used to 
describe him until he was sixty — for 
he was freckled, one shoulder was 
higher than the other, and his legs 
were so thin that they could not do 
justice to small-clothes. 
Yet it will not do to assume that thin 
men are weak, any more than to take 
it for granted that fat men are strong. 
Jefferson was as muscular as a pan- 
ther and could walk or ride or run 
six days and nights together •?* He 
could lift from the floor a thousand 
pounds. 

When twenty-four, he hung out his 
lawyer's sign under that of George 
Wythe at Williamsburg. And clients 
came that way with retainers, and 
rich planters sent him business, and 
wealthy widows advised with him — 
and still he could not make a speech 
without stuttering. Many men can 
harangue a jury, and every village 
has its orator; but where is the wise 
and silent man who will advise you 

14 



in a way that will keep you out of Thomas 
difficulty, protect your threatened Jefferson 
interests, and conduct the affairs you 
may leave in his hands so as to return 
your ten talents with other talents 
added I And I hazard the statement, 
without heat or prejudice, that if the 
experiment should be made with a 
thousand lawyers in any one of our 
larger cities, four- fifths of them would 
be found so deficient either mentally 
or morally, or both, that if ten tal- 
ents were placed in their hands, they 
would not at the close of a year be 
able to account for the principal, to 
say nothing of the interest. And the 
bar of to-day is made up of a better 
class than it was in Jefferson's time, 
even if it has not the intellectual fibre 
that it had forty years ago. 
But at the early age of twenty-five, 
Jefferson was a wise and skilful man 
in the world's affairs (and a man who 
is wise is also honest) and men of this 
stamp do not remain hidden in ob- 
scurity. The world needs just such 
individuals and needs them badly. 

15 



Thomas Jefferson had the quiet, methodical 
Jefferson industry that works without undue 
expenditure of nervous force; that 
intuitive talent which enables the 
possessor to read a whole page at a 
glance and drop at once upon the 
vital point; and then he had the 
ability to get his whole case on paper, 
marshaling his facts in a brief pointed 
way that served to convince better 
than eloquence. These are the char- 
acteristics that make for success in 
practice before our Courts of Appeal; 
and Jefferson's success shows that 
they serve better than bluster even 
with a backwoods bench composed 
of fox-hunting farmers. 
In 1768, when Jefferson was twenty- 
five, he went down to Shadwell and 
ran for member of the Virginia Leg- 
islature. It was the proper thing to 
do, for he was the richest man in the 
county, being heir to his father's 
forty thousand acres, and it was ex- 
pected that he would represent his 
district. He called on every voter in 
the parish, shook hands with every- 

16 



body, complimented the ladies, ca- Thomas 

ressed the babies, treated crowds at Jefferson 

every tavern and kept a large punch 

bowl and open house at home. 

He was elected. 

The Legislature convened on the 11th 

of May, 1769, with nearly a hundred 

members present, one of the number 

being Colonel George Washington. 

It took up two days' time for the 

assembly to elect a speaker and get 

ready for business. On the third day, 

four resolutions were introduced — 

pushed to the front largely through 

the influence of our new member. 

These resolutions were : 

I. No taxation without representa- 
tion. 

II. The Colonies may concur and 
unite in seeking redress for grievan- 
ces f^ ^ 

III. Sending accused persons away 
from their own country for trial is an 
inexcusable wrong. 

IV. We will send an address on these 
things to the King beseeching his 
royal interposition. 

17 



Thomas The resolutions were passed; they 
Jefferson did not mean much anyway, said the 
opposition. And another resolution 
was then passed to this effect: **We 
will send a copy of these resolutions 
to every legislative body on the 
continent." 

That was a little stronger but did not 
mean much either. 
It was voted upon and passed. 
Then the assembly adjourned, having 
dispatched a copy of the resolutions 
to the newly appointed Governor, 
Lord Boutetourt, who had lately 
arrived from London. 
Next day, the Governor's secretary 
appeared when the assembly con- 
vened and repeated the following 
formula: **The Governor commands 
the House to attend His Excellency 
in the Council Chamber." The body 
marched to the Council Chamber, 
and stood around the throne waiting 
the pleasiu-e of His Lordship ,4^^ 
He made a speech which I will quote 
entire. "Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen 
of the House of Burgesses: I have 

18 



heard your resolves, and augur ill of Thomas 
their effect. You have made it my Jefferson 
duty to dissolve you, and you are 
dissolved accordingly." 
And that was the end of Jefferson's 
first term in office, — the reward for 
all the hand-shaking, all the caress- 
ing, all the treating I 
The members looked at each other 
but no one said anything because 
there was nothing to say. The secre- 
tary made an impatient gesture with 
his hand to the effect that they should 
disperse, and they did. 
Just how those legally elected rep- 
resentatives and now legally common 
citizens took their rebuff we do not 
know. 

Did Washington forget his usual 
poise and break out into one of those 
swearing fits where everybody wisely 
made way ? And how did Richard 
Henry Lee like it, and the Randolphs, 
and George Wythe? 
Did Patrick Henry wax eloquent 
that afternoon in a barroom and did 
Jefferson do more than smile grimly, 

19 



Thomas biding his time ? Q Massachusetts 
Jefferson kept a complete history of her poUt- 
ical heresies, but Virginia chased 
foxes and left the refinements of lit- 
erature to dillettanti. But this much 
we know : Those country gentlemen 
did not go off peaceably and quietly 
to race horses or play cards. The slap 
in the face from the gloved hand of 
Lord Boutetourt awoke every boozy 
sense of security and gave vitality to 
all those fanatical messages sent by 
Samuel Adams. Washington, we are 
told, spoke of it as a bit of upstart 
authority on the part of the new Gov- 
ernor; but Jefferson with prophetic 
vision saw the end. 



SO 




LEADING lawyer at Thomas 

Williamsburg, and one Jefferson 

against whom Jefferson 

was often pitted, was 

John Wayles J^ I need 
S^ not explain that lawyers 
hotly opposed to each other in a trial 
are not necessarily enemies. The way 
in which Jefferson conducted his cases 
pleased the veteran Wayles and he 
invited Jefferson to visit him at his 
fine estate, called "The Forest," a 
few miles out from Williamsburg. 
In the family of Mr. Wayles dwelt 
his widowed daughter, the beautiful 
Martha Skelton, gracious and rich as 
Jefferson in worldly goods j^ She 
played the spinet with great feeling, 
and the spinet and the violin go very 
well together. So together Thomas 
and Martha played and sometimes a 
bit of discord crept in, for Thomas 
was absent-minded, and in the busi- 
ness of watching the widow's fingers 
touch the keys, played flat. 
Long years before, he had liked and 
admired Becca, gazed most fondly at 



Thomas Sukey, and finally loved Belinda. He 
Jefferson did not tell her so, but he told John 
Page, and vowed that if he did not 
wed Belinda he would go through 
life solitary and alone. 
In a few months Belinda married that 
detested being — another. Then it was 
he again swore to his friend Page he 
would be true to her memory even 
though she had dissembled. But now 
he saw that the widow Skelton had 
intellect, while Belinda had been but 
clever; the widow had soul, while 
Belinda had nothing but form. Jef- 
ferson's experience seems to settle 
that mooted question, '* Can a man 
love two women at the same time ? " 
Unlike Martha Custis, this Martha 
was won only after a protracted and 
persistent wooing, with many little 
skirmishes and misunderstandings & 
explanations, and sweet makings-up 
that were surely worth a quarrel. 
Then they were married at "The 
Forest," and rode away through the 
woods to Monticello. Jefferson was 
twenty-seven, and although it may 



not be proper to question closely as Thomas 
to the age of a widow, yet the bride, Jefferson 
we have reason to believe, was about 
the age of her husband. 
It was a most happy mating — all of 
their quarreling had been done before 
marriage. The fine intellect and high 
spirit of Jefferson found their mate. 
She was his comrade and helpmeet 
as well as his wife *^ He could read 
his favorite Ossian aloud to her, and 
when he tired she would read to him ; 
and all of his plans and ambitions and 
hopes were hers. In laying out the 
grounds and beautifying that home 
on Monticello mountain she took 
much more than a passive interest. 
It was "Our Home," and to make 
it a home in very sooth for her be- 
loved husband was her highest ambi- 
tion. She knew the greatness of her 
mate, and all her dreams for his ad- 
vancement were to come true. With 
her, ideality was to become a reality. 
But she was to see it only in part. 
C{ Yet she had seen her husband re- 
elected to the Virginia Legislature ; 

23 



Thomas sent as a member to the Colonial 
Jefferson Congress at Philadelphia, there to 
write the best known of all Ameri- 
can literary productions; from their 
mountain home she had seen British 
troops march into Charlottesville, 
four miles away, and then, burdened 
with household treasure, had fled, 
knowing that Monticello would be 
devastated by the enemy's ruthless 
tread. She had known AVashington, 
and had visited his lonely wife there 
at Mount Vernon when victory hung 
in the balance, when defeat meant 
that Thomas Jefferson and George 
Washington would be the first vic- 
tims of a vengeful foe. She saw her 
husband War- Governor of Virginia 
in its most perilous hour ; she lived to 
know that Washington had won ; that 
Cornwallis was his "guest," and that 
no man, save Washington alone, was 
more honored in proud Virginia than 
her beloved lord and husband >^^ 
She saw a messenger on horseback 
approaching with a packet from the 
Congress at Philadelphia to the effect 

24 



that "His Excellency, the Honor- Thomas 
able Thomas Jefferson," had been Jefferson 
appointed as one of an embassy to 
France in the interest of the United 
States, with Benjamin Franklin and 
Silas Deane as colleagues, and know- 
ing her husband's love for Franklin, 
and his respect for France, she leaned 
over his chair and with misty eyes 
saw him write his simple *'No," and 
knew that the only reason he declined 
was because he would not leave his 
wife at a time when she might most 
need his tenderness and sympathy. 
H And then they retired to beloved 
Monticello to enjoy the rest that 
comes only after work well done — 
to spend the long vacation of their 
lives in simple home-keeping work 
and studious leisure, her husband yet 
in manhood's prime, scarce thirty- 
seven, as men count time, and rich, 
passing rich in goods and lands. 
And then she died. 
And Thomas Jefferson, the strong, 
the self-poised, the self-reliant, fell in 
a helpless swoon, and was laid on a 

25 



Thomas pallet and carried out, as though he, 
Jefferson too, were dead. For three weeks his 
dazed senses prayed for death. He 
could endure the presence of no one 
save his eldest daughter, a slim, slen- 
der girl of scarce ten years, growTi a 
woman in a day. By her loving touch 
and tenderness he was lured back 
from death and reason's night into 
the world of life and light. With tot- 
tering steps, led by the child who had 
to think for both, he was taken out 
on the veranda of beautiful Monti- 
cello. He looked out on stretching 
miles of dark blue hills and waving 
woods and winding river. He gazed, 
and as he looked it came slowly to 
him that the earth was still as when 
he last saw it, and reaUzed that this 
would be so even if he were gone. 
Then, turning to the child, who stood 
by, stroking his locks, it came to him 
that even in our grief there may be 
selfishness, and for the first time he 
responded to the tender caress and 
said : * ' Yes, we will live, daughter — 
live in memory of her! " 

S6 




[HEN two men of equal Thomas 
intelligence and sincerity Jefferson 
quarrel, both are prob- 
ably right .J* Hamilton 
and Jefferson were op- 
posed to each other by 

temperament and disposition, in a 

way that caused either to look with 

distrust on any proposition made by 

the other ^ Yet, when Washington 

pressed upon Jefferson the position 

of Secretary of State, I cannot but 

think that he did it as an antidote to 

the growing power and the vaunting 

ambition of Hamilton. Washington 

won his victories, as great men ever 

do, by wisely choosing his aides »^ 

Hamilton had done yeoman's service 

in every branch of the government, 

and while the chief sincerely admired 

his genius, he guessed his limitations. 

Power grows until it topples, and 

when it topples, innocent people are 

crushed. Washington was wise as a 

serpent, and rather than risk an open 

ruction with Hamilton by personally 

setting bounds, he invited Jefferson 

27 



Thomas into his cabinet, and the acid was neu- 
Jefferson trahzed to a degree where it could 
be safely handled. 

Jefferson had j us t returned from Paris 
with his beloved daughter, Martha. 
He was intending soon to return to 
France and study social science at 
close range. Already he had seen that 
mob of women march out to Ver- 
sailles and fetch the King to Paris, 
and had seen barricade after barricade 
erected with the stones from the lev- 
eled Bastile; he was on intimate and 
affectionate terms with the Marquis 
de Lafayette and the Republican 
leaders, and here was a pivotal point 
. in his Hfe. Had not Washington per- 
suaded him to remain "just for the 
present" in America, he might have 
played a part in Carlyle's best book, 
that book which is not history, but 
more — an epic. So, among the many 
obligations that we owe Washington, 
must be named this one of pushing 
Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and 
the man of peace, into the political 
embroglio and shutting the door. 

28 



Then it was that Hamilton's taunt- Thomas 

ing temper awoke a degree of power Jefferson 

in Jefferson that before he wist not 

of; then it was that he first fully 

realized that the "United States" 

with England as a sole pattern was 

not enough. 

A pivotal point ! Yes, a pivotal point 

for Jefferson, America, and the world ; 

for Jefferson gave the rudder of the 

ship of state such a turn to starboard 

that there was never again danger of 

her drifting onto aristocratic shoals, 

an easy victim to the rapacity of 

Great Britain. Hamilton's distrust of 

the people found no answering echo 

in Jefferson's mind. 

He agreed with Hamilton that a 

*' strong government" administered 

by a few, provided the few are wise 

and honorable, is the best possible 

government. Nay, he went further 

still and declared that an absolute 

monarchy in which the monarch was 

all-wise and all-powerful, could not 

be improved upon by the imagination 

of man. 

29 



Thomas In his composition there was a saving 
Jefferson touch of humor that both Hamilton 
and Washington seemed to lack. He 
could smile at himself; but none ever 
dared turn a joke on Hamilton, much 
less on Washington ^ And so when 
Hamilton explained that a strong 
government administered by Wash- 
ington, President; Jefferson, Secre- 
tary of State; Hamilton, Secretary 
of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of 
War, and Randolph, Attorney Gen- 
eral, was pretty nearly ideal, no one 
smiled. But Jefferson's plain infer- 
ence was that power is dangerous and 
man is fallible ; that a man so good 
as Washington dies to-morrow and 
another man steps in, and that those 
who have the government in their 
present keeping should curb ambi- 
tion, limit their own power, and thus 
fix a precedent for those who are to 
follow. 

The wisdom that Jefferson as a states- 
man showed in working for a future 
good, and the willingness to forego 
the pomp of personal power, to sac- 



rifice self if need be, that the day he Thomas 
should not see might be secure, ranks Jefferson 
him as first among statesmen. For a 
statesman is one who builds a state v,^^ 
and not a politician who is dead, as 
some have said. 

Others, since, have followed Jeffer- 
son's example, but in the world's 
history, I do not recall a man before 
him who, while still having power in 
his grasp, was willing to trust the 
people. 

The one mistake of Washington that 
borders on blunder, was in refusing 
to take wages for his work. In doing 
this he visited untold misery upon 
others, who not having married rich 
widows, tried to follow his example 
and floundered into woeful debt and 
disgrace; and thereby were lost to 
useful society and the world. 
And there are yet numerous public 
offices where small men rattle about 
because men who can fill the place 
cannot affbrd it. Bryce declares that 
no able and honest man of moderate 
means can affbrd to take an active 

31 



Thomas part in municipal affairs in America 
Jefferson — and Bryce is right. 

When Jefferson became President, 
in his message to Congress again and 
again he advised the fixing of suffi- 
cient salaries to secure the best men 
for every branch of the service; and 
suggested the absurdity of expecting 
anything for nothing, or the hope of 
officials not ' ' fixing things ' ' if not 
properly paid. 

Men from the soil who gain power 
are usually intoxicated by it ; begin- 
ning as democrats they evolve into 
aristocrats, then later into tyrants, if 
kindly fate does not interpose, and 
are dethroned by the people who 
made them. And it is not surprising 
that this man, born into a plenty that 
bordered on affluence, and who never 
knew from experience the necessity 
of economy (until in old age tobacco 
and slavery had wrecked Virginia 
and Monticello alike), should set an 
almost ideal example of simplicity, 
moderation and brotherly kindness. 
Q Among the chief glories belonging 

32 



to him are these : Q I. Writing the Thomas 
Declaration of Independence. Jefferson 

II. Suggesting and carrying out the 
present decimal monetary system. 

III. Inducing Virginia to deed to the 
States as their common property, the 
Northwest Territory. 

IV. Purchasing from France for the 
comparatively trifling sum of fifteen 
million dollars Louisiana and all the 
territory extending from the Gulf of 
Mexico to Puget Sound, being at the 
rate of a fraction of a cent per acre, 
and giving the United States full 
control of the Mississippi River. 
But over and beyond these is the 
spirit of patriotism that makes each 
true American feel he is parcel and 
part of the very fabric of the state, 
and in his deepest heart believe that 
*' a government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people, shall n^t 
perish from the earth." 



33 



Thomas Jefferson 

THE RADICAL 



Address of Hon. John J. Lentz, of 
Columbus, Ohio, at the Roy croft 
Pavilion, Ea^t, Aurora, New York, 
July Fourth, Nineteen Hundred Five 




lERE in East Aurora, Thomas 
the Mecca of more than Jefferson 
five hundred thousand 
thinkers who read The 
Philistine, here in the 
city of the greatest uni- 
versity in all America, the greatest 
institution of learning, I come to 
address an East Aurora audience — 
no, an American audience — on the 
birthday of the American Republic. 
Q We are living in an age of elec- 
tricity and we travel with great speed 
in every direction and on every line 
of civilization. I can't forget, how- 
ever, that I am in New York when 
I am in East Aurora. Ordinarily we 
think of East Aurora as in the upper 
atmosphere, dealing with something 
higher than the earth, dealing with 
something more noble than the mere 
pocketbook; but when the balloon 
comes dowTi we are in the State of 
New York. 

There seems at times to be a strong 
bias toward the belief that Jeiferson 
was an aristocrat and a conservative. 

37 



Thomas H This is the Fourth of July, the 
Jefferson birthday given to Thomas Jefferson 
by his ovm brain and heart, and I will 
show you that he was at all times 
the radical of the radicals. 
Eloquence has carried the eagle into 
the skies, eloquence has bounded this 
country with its seas and -with its 
Canada and its Mexico ^ But there 
are occasions when we ought to come 
down to sober thought. I pride myself 
in speaking here to an audience that 
recognizes that there is something 
better than the purse, that there is 
something better than acres, and that 
there is after all a higher purpose than 
money grubbing, & that is to liberate 
the intellect. Build all the houses, 
and railways, and ships you please, 
but when you 're through building 
you 're building nothing unless you 
have built better hopes and better 
hearts for this country. I recognize 
in politics no right except to build a 
higher manhood and a nobler woman- 
hood. I recognize no statesmanship 
that does not everlastingly look after 

38 



the common herd of humanity with Thomas 
the hope and the purpose that every Jefferson 
individual shall be built up & become 
a pride to the country. 
I believe that this country has no 
other mission than to have as high 
intellect and as high moral purpose in 
the factory, as in the church, in the 
school or in the legislative hall. I do 
not concede that the time still remains 
for masses and privileged classes. We 
have passed beyond that. 
I do not care to discuss Hamilton, 
except to say that he was the one 
who believed in a president for life. 
He believed that the president should 
appoint the governors of the different 
states for life — he believed substan- 
tially in a monarchy. He brought to 
our attention a line of thought which 
it was well enough to consider, but 
which was repudiated by a majority 
of the best men that ever lived in the 
American Republic. He proposed a 
form of government that was found 
wanting when tried in the crucible 
of 1776. 

39 



Thomas Gf Hamilton and Jefferson stood for 
Jefferson diametrically opposite propositions. 
Hamilton called the people ' ' a blind 
and brutal monster." Jefferson said 
that within the heart and brain of the 
people you will find the true aristoc- 
racy of this Republic ^ Hamilton 
believed in an aristocracy that meant 
an oligarchy. Jefferson believed in 
a democracy that meant Christian 
socialism ^ Jefferson believed, with 
Jesus of Nazareth, in the doctrine 
of loving yoiu- neighbor as you love 
yourself .^^ Jefferson was the first 
politician or statesman who "v\Tote 
into a public document the teachings 
of Jesus of Nazareth, and he ^vrote 
it in one word — Equality. And the 

^ great Lincoln was good enough and 

frank enough to say that he never 
entertained a political sentiment that 
he did not draw from the Ufe and 
■wTitings of Thomas Jefferson. 
Now, my friends who think you are 
Republicans, and you who think you 
are Democrats, unless }^ou believe in 
the brotherhood of man, unless you 

40 



are willing to concede to every one Thomas 

what you ask for youi'selves, and go Jefferson 

farther than that, and extend to every 

one what you demand for yourselves, 

you are neither Lincoln Republicans 

nor JefFersonian Democrats. Emerson 

said, " It is not so important that we 

prevent others from cheating us, but 

it is exceedingly important that we 

do not cheat them. ' ' j^ That is the 

business of an American citizen. Be 

careful that you don't cheat some 

one else. 

The same thing is true in politics. A 

man can't be an American citizen 

and be a Christian at the same time, 

without doing unto others as he would 

have others do unto him. And the 

political party that resorts to the boss 

and the crimes perpetrated by the 

bosses, has no Christianity in it. The 

political party that will resort to the 

gerrymander, in order to control an 

unfair proportion of the total vote of 

a state, is criminal in its methods. 

And the man or woman who is willing 

to accept that kind of an advantage, 

41 



Thomas is a coward instead of a Jeffersonian 
Jefferson Democrat or a Lincoln Republican. 
It is the lowest kind of cowardice. 
Talk about King George the Third 
and his httle five per cent taxation 
without representation I When you 
Repubhcans are willing to take the 
control in the State of Pennsylvania 
of all congressional representatives, 
by resorting to the gerrymander, or 
when you Democrats, who dominate 
in a state Hke Texas, ai-e willing to 
do likewise, there is something rotten 
not only in Denmark but also in this 
country. 

Xow, if Jefferson was a fakir, it was 
because he imphcitly beheved that 
all men were created equal ^ And 
he proved his words by his practices. 
You can't take the full measure of 
Jefferson in the Hght of 1905 — you 
must take this man as he stood in the 
environments of his first pubhc act 
in 1769. ^Alien Socrates sacrificed his 
fife, when Jesus of Nazareth sacrificed 
His life, was either a fakir / > When 
Thomas Jefferson in the House of 

4fi 



Burgesses, in 1769, introduced a bill Thomas 

to permit the master to make his slave Jefferson 

free, knowing that every slave master 

in Virginia was opposed to it, was he 

doing a popular thing ? Was he then 

catering to the rich ? ^ Was he a 

flunky ? Was he a sycophant ? Or was 

he a radical ? Did he go down to the 

root of things ? J^ Did he beheve in 

equality when he introduced that 

measure ? I remind you that prior to 

1769, and for many years thereafter, 

the black man or black woman was a 

mere beast of burden — if a neighbor 

chose to liberate his slave and the 

slave was turned out on the highway, 

the very first person who saw this 

slave, could take him, as he would 

take a stray horse or cow, and put 

him on the auction block and sell him, 

and make him a slave again, and put 

the proceeds in the public treasury. 

Jefferson simply introduced a bill to 

permit a humane master to liberate 

a black man or a black woman — to 

make of the black man or the black 

woman a human being. But it was 

43 



Thomas repudiated almost unanimously in 
Jefferson the House of Biu-gesses of A^irginia. 
I hear a great many name some other 
as the originator of the an ti- slavery 
movement, but it was Jefferson who 
introduced the first bill against it. 
Q I propose to show my friend Elbert 
Hubbard that this man Jefferson has 
made all the la^vyers respectable. Our 
friend Elbert Hubbard teaches every 
one something, and almost any one 
a great many things, and following 
his example and precept, I made a 
little journey, on the first day of last 
February, to Williamsburg, Virginia. 
I wanted to see the very ground upon 
which this Thomas Jefferson entered 
his college career, and I went to the 
library of William and Mary College, 
and the librarian showed me the old 
account books of the college in the 
winter and summer of 1760-'61-'62, 
and what do you suppose Thomas 
Jefferson paid for his learning? In 
the year 1760-'G1 he paid thirteen 
pounds, that is sixty-five dollars ; and 
for the second year, thirteen pounds, 

44 



and thus he graduated at a cost of Thomas 
one hundred and thirty dollars. The Jefferson 
author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence got his collegiate education 
for one hundred and thirty dollars I 
What Thomas Jefferson learned was 
to use his own head. That is what 
Elbert Hubbard does, & he is the best 
representation of Thomas Jefferson 
in this country to-day. This country 
has a drought of thinking people just 
now. You can hire men to dig in a 
ditch for a dollar a day .^ But you 
can't hire men to think at any price. 
Most men who pretend to think are 
flunkies, trailing along after some 
one, either in politics or religion. 
Thomas Jefferson's career began right 
in that little town of Williamsburg 
— it is hardly big enough now to be 
called a town .^ At one end of the 
street is William and Mary College, 
& at the other end of the street they 
have marked out the old foundation 
lines of the House of Burgesses. But 
this same House of Burgesses has 
something else in store for you and 

45 



Thomas me. C( In 1662, from this selfsame 
Jefferson town. Colonial Governor Berkeley 
sent over to England, to Charles II., 
a report on the condition of the 
colony. In that message were these 
two statements: *' There are no free 
schools in Virginia. There are no 
printing-presses in Virginia. God be 
thanked for it. ' ' What do you think 
of that for a governor ? Thanking God 
that there are no free schools and no 
printing-presses in Virginia. And he 
went farther and said: **And there 
are not likely to be these hundred 
years, and God be thanked for that." 
Well, Berkeley, you were neither a 
prophet nor the son of a prophet! 
Berkeley never thought that this boy 
would ride from Charlottesville, on 
horseback, clear over to Williamsburg 
and fiddle his way back and forth, 
stopping at the farm-houses and thus 
paying for his night's lodging. 
Such, my friends, was the condition 
of Virginia in 1662. They had no free 
schools, they had no printing-presses. 
We will come down quickly to 1776, 

46 



for I want to reach the Declaration Thomas 

of Independence and call attention Jefferson 

to the fact that this was only one of 

the many radical things that Thomas 

Jefferson did. Thomas Jefferson, in 

1777, stood in the little House of 

Burgesses, or House of Delegates, 

as it was afterwards called, and there 

did as important work as that of 

writing the word Equality in the 

Declaration of Independence — for as 

a legislator in the State of Virginia his 

bills directed against entailed estates 

and primogeniture, and in favor of 

entire religious freedom and universal 

education, were long strides toward 

practical equality. The word Equality 

in the Declaration of Independence 

still stands as an ideal rather than the 

real — still stands as a matter of hope 

rather than a matter of history. 

When I was a schoolboy I thought 

this Thomas Jefferson was a man who 

went to Philadelphia in 1776, and 

after a few days wrote the Declaration 

of Independence. But this is not so. 

Jefferson was eleven years writing 

47 



Thomas that Declaration of Independence. 
Jefferson Robert G. IngersoU made a political 
speech in Indianapolis in 1876. His 
subject on this occasion was, "Why I 
am a Republican & not a Democrat. ' ' 
He had an audience of about ten 
acres of people to which he spoke 
nearly the entire afternoon. When 
he had finished they gathered around 
him, and among those who eagerly 
congratulated him was a blue jeans 
Hoosier, who said: "Mr. IngersoU, 
that 's the best oiF-hand speech I ever 
heard in my life. " «^ To which Mr. 
IngersoU promptly replied: "Yes, 
my friend, but I have been just ten 
years preparing that speech." 
So Thomas Jefferson did not write 
the Declaration of Independence with 
one stroke of the pen ^ In 1765, 
while a law student at Williamsburg, 
he stood out in the corridor of the 
little House of Burgesses and heard 
Patrick Henry say: "Caesar had his 
Brutus, Charles the First had his 
Cromwell," & when some of the old 
Tories shouted, "Treason, treason," 

48 



Henry said, ' * and George the Third Thomas 
may profit by their example. If this Jefferson 
be treason, make the most of it." 
That is the day, that is the hour and 
minute when Thomas Jefferson began 
the preparation of the Declaration of 
Independence. 

From May 30, 1765, down to July 
4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson was think- 
ing continuously on the rights of the 
people as against any and every form 
of tyranny, however and wherever 
intrenched, either in state or church, 
and it was during these eleven years 
of thought and preparation that he 
reached that mental and philosophic 
stage which prompted him to sum- 
marize a holy and sacred principle in 
these words: '* Resistance to tyrants 
is obedience to God. " Of all the vows 
taken and of all the oaths registered, 
dedicating human lives and mortal 
careers either to church or state, 
there probably never was a more 
loyal & faithful resolution registered, 
on earth or in heaven, than that of 
Thomas Jefferson when he declared, 

49 



Thomas *' I have sworn on the altar of God 
Jefferson eternal hostility to every form of 
tyranny over the mind of man. " And 
the tyrants against whom Jefferson 
swore this eternal hostility, & against 
whom Lincoln swore eternal hostility 
when he took up the work of human 
rights where Jefferson left it off, are 
not all dethroned. 

The English monarch who levied 
tribute upon American citizenship 
was repudiated and dethroned so far 
as one form of tyranny and taxation 
is concerned. The slave masters who 
misappropriated the daily service and 
earnings of the black slaves, are no 
longer an American oligarchy. That 
school of priests and preachers who 
believed in the union of church and 
state, who believed that the All- wise 
and Omnipotent God could only be 
served at the expense of the taxpayers 
of the state, are to-day without any 
support except here & there in some 
insignificant sectarian school, where 
the beardless youth in the debating 
society rushes in to defend an obsolete 

50 



institution, upon the principle that Thomas 
"fools rush in where angels fear to Jefferson 
tread." That class of citizens who 
argued against the right of the state 
to maintain a public school system, 
and guarantee universal education 
and universal emancipation from the 
demons and monsters of superstition 
and bigotry, are substantially all in 
the graveyard of oblivion, their bones 
lying side by side with the skeletons 
of the ichthyosaurus and the mas- 
todon. "Defunct" and "obsolete" 
are the words burnt into the very bone 
of the forehead of several forms of 
tyranny ^ But the tyrants on the 
throne are not the only tyrants who 
have afflicted humanity and retarded 
civilization ^ It does not matter 
whether you levy tribute upon the 
masses while you sit as a monarch, 
or whether you levy tribute upon the 
masses by controlling some great 
trust, like the oil trust, the beef 
trust, the street-railway trust, or 
some other trust. 
Allow me to digress, for a moment, 

51 



Thomas from my subject, while I read j^ou a 
Jefferson paragraph from an article by Charles 
Edward Russell on the beef trust, in 
which Mr. Russell says: ** Names 
change ; details change ; but when the 
facts of these actual conditions are 
laid bare it vdW puzzle a thoughtfiil 
man to say wherein the rule of the 
great power to be described differs 
in any essential from the rule of a 
feudal tyrant in the darkness of the 
Middle Ages. Three times a day this 
power comes to the table of every 
household in America, rich or poor, 
great or small, known or unknoTVTi; 
it comes there and extorts its tribute. 
It crosses the ocean and makes its 
presence felt in multitudes of homes 
that would not know how to give it 
a name. It controls prices and regu- 
lates traffic in a thousand markets. 
It changes conditions and builds up 
and pulls ^io^yn industries ; it makes 
men poor or rich as it will ; it controls 
or establishes or obhterates immense 
enterprises across the civilized circuit. 
Its hghtest words affect men on the 

52 



plains of Argentina or the by-streets Thomas 

of London." Jefferson 

Such is the tyranny against which 

both Thomas Jefferson and Abraham 

Lincoln would proclaim, if they were 

living to-day, just as they fulminated 

against the white man's tyranny over 

the black slave, years ago c^ The 

tyranny of a foreign power is not so 

much to be feared, my friends, as the 

tyranny of the trustocracy here at 

home. We need not in the least fear 

the aggressions of Russia, or Spain, 

or Great Britain, but if it were not 

for the educational work of the East 

Aurora University and other like 

institutions, I would fear that the 

greed of our own trustocracy would 

destroy the Republic just as all other 

republics have been destroyed by the 

greed and arrogance of a class who 

have secured special privileges for the 

few «^ ^ 

When the students in Munich, in 

Berlin, or Heidelberg lose themselves 

in the labyrinth of philosophy, some 

one says : * 'Back to Kant, ' ' Immanuel 

53 



Thomas Kant, the greatest modern philoso- 
Jefferson pher ^ > 

And so, ^^'ith an Americiin problem, 
whatever problem it may be. if you 
only go back to Jefferson you will 
tind how to solve it, whether it is 
1005 or 2005. After Jeiferson went 
up to Philadelphia and MTote the 
Dechiration oi Independence, what 
did he do next / Wa> he seeking that 
which influences the average m:m of 
vanity • No. He declined a reelection 
to the Continental Congress, saying: 
*• I must go to the State Legislature. 
I must begin reforms at home where 
I can be of the most serWce to the 
people." What did he do- Let me 
say to you that he introduced the 
fo lu- bills which have contributed 
more to the progress and prosperity 
of tlie American people in a single 
centiu^'. than has been accompUshed 
in any other civilization in a thousand 
years. He introduced a bill against 
entailed estates, jmd made it a part 
of the fimdamental law of the State 
of Virginia, and made it substantially 

54 



the law of an entire continent. He Thomas 

took away from the dead hand the Jefferson 

power of controlhng and directing 

property in perpetuity regardless of 

the needs and conditions of a higher 

intelligence and a later civilization. 

He also introduced another bill to 

abolish the laws in favor of the clergy, 

who were being paid out of the public 

treasury. You could n't believe with 

Confiicius, nor with Mohammed, nor 

in the Jewish religion; you had to 

believe in the Christian religion — 

not that Christian religion taught by 

Jesus of Nazareth, but that Christian 

religion taught by the theologians. 

You were compelled to accept the 

theology of Milton's Paradise Losty 

and you were compelled to accept the 

religion which imposed upon many 

thinkers the penalty of ostracism and 

martyrdom, or the degradation and 

dry rot of hypocrisy. 

It was still more true in the day of 

Jefferson than it is now, as Father 

Ducey of New York so happily puts 

it, *' We have too much churchianity 

55 



Thomas and too little Christianity. ' ' You were 
Jefferson not permitted to voice any thought 
or idea, or advance any theory outside 
the beaten path of superstition and 
bigotry, without assuming the pains 
& penalties of legalized persecution, 
without subjecting yourself to the 
danger of legalized murder. It is a 
matter of recorded history that prior 
to the teachings of Thomas Jefferson, 
a poor Quaker woman came to this 
country to preach her simple and 
sincere doctrine of Christ's work and 
mission on earth. For the first offense 
of such preaching the statutory pen- 
alty was to cut off one ear. For the 
second offense they cut off the other 
ear, and if she came back the third 
time she was put to death. 
Think, my friends, of a civilization 
so benighted, so bigoted, so viciously 
superstitious as this! Think of the 
founders of the Quaker rehgion, who 
came to teach the simple lesson of 
lo\'ing your neighbor as j^ou love 
yourself, who came to emphasize by 
their precept and their example, the 

56 



religion of the Nazarene teacher who Thomas 
taught that we should do unto others Jefferson 
as we would have them do unto us, 
and who did not teach the necessity 
of church spires and taxation of the 
people for the support of the clergy. 
CJ I think it was Anna Dickinson 
who said that the Quaker religion, in 
proportion to the number of followers 
of that faith, has nestled and fledged 
more philanthropists than any other 
religion on the face of the earth ; and 
yet the heroic women and men who 
brought that simple faith to America 
were persecuted even unto death. 
Legalized murder did not stop with 
the repeal of this statute against the 
imion of church and state, nor did 
legalized murder begin in the State 
of Virginia or in the State of Massa- 
chusetts r€^> Neither did legalized 
murder begin when John Calvin had 
Michael Servetus indicted, convicted 
and burned at the stake for believing 
and saying that ** Unbaptized infants 
are not lost," and that, *'It is foolish 
to say that the salvation of a baby 

57 



Thomas depends upon a man's choosing to 
Jefferson have it baptized." Neither did legal- 
ized murder begin when Jesus of 
Nazareth was indicted c^- condemned 
to death. Neither did legahzed murder 
begin when Socrates was indicted, 
convicted and condemned to death. 
G[ But we need not go back forther 
in studying the history of these legal- 
ized murders and mm-derers »^ The 
question before us on this aimiversary 
of the birthday of American freedom 
is to decide not when this legahzed 
persecution and murder began, but 
when they shall cease. John Bro-^Ti, at 
the hands of a coin-t duly organized, 
was legally murdered ^ Benjamin 
Limdy, the teacher and inspirer of 
William Lloyd GiU-rison, was tramp- 
led almost to death mider the heel of 
a brutal and ^icious slave dealer in 
the city of Balthuore, :md when the 
slave dealer was brought before the 
coiu-t and tried for assault vriih intent 
to kill, the httle political puppet who 
sat on the pohticiil bench catering 
to the controUing influence of the 

58 



community, commenting upon the Thomas 
verdict of the jury, which found the Jefferson 
slave dealer guilty, fined him one 
dollar and remarked that Lundy had 
received no more than he deserved. 
Q I cite these instances to show how 
imcertain &; unreliable any intellect is ; 
to show you how necessary it is that 
each generation as well as each indi- 
vidual should be instant and constant 
in the prayer for that divine help 
which will make us honest enough, 
generous enough and bold enough to 
dedicate ourselves with Jefferson to 
the doctrine of ' ' eternal hostility to 
every form of tyranny over the mind 
of man." This statute of religious 
freedom, written by the hand of 
Thomas Jefferson, deserves a monu- 
ment towering as high as the tallest 
monument that ever has been or ever 
will be dedicated to the brain that 
formulated for all time the Christian 
charity and the Christian equality of 
the Declaration of Independence. 
CJ In addition to the statute against 
entails and the statute for religious 

59 



Thomas freedom, Jefferson introduced and 
Jefferson secured the passage of the act against 
primogeniture, that accursed pohcy 
transplanted from England to this 
country, under which the oldest son 
inherited all the real estate of the 
father, regardless of the rights of the 
daughters and the other sons. In this 
generation it is impossible to respect 
the brain and heart of a civilization 
gross enough to entertain the plan of 
disinheriting the daughters whose 
mothers had helped to create the 
estate, but such was its tyranny over 
the mind of man in Jefferson's time 
that at first it was impossible to 
induce the committee having the bill 
in charge to report in favor of placing 
all the sons and daughters upon a 
basis of equality with reference to 
ancestral realty. 

Finally the other members of the 
committee proposed to report an 
amendment to Jefferson's bill, so as 
to give the oldest son twice as large 
a share as any of the other children. 
Thereupon, Jefferson, in the course 

60 



of his argument against this proposed Thomas 
modification of his bill, said : Jefferson 

*' I will agree to support your bill 
giving twice as much of the property 
of the father to the oldest son as is 
given to each of the other sons or 
daughters, provided you will incor- 
porate into the law a condition that 
requires the oldest son to eat twice 
as much food, wear twice as much 
clothing, and do twice as much work 
as each of the other children." 
C[ This argument lifted the cloud of 
ignorance from the stupid brains of 
the other members of the committee, 
and strange to say, they all consented 
to bring in the bill giving to each of 
the children, whether son or daughter, 
equal share in the father's property. 
C, This bill, my friends, is another 
evidence of the radicalism of Thomas 
Jefferson — another evidence of the 
courage and determination of this 
master statesman to free the human 
mind from one more of the tyrannies 
and fetiches of the Dark Ages. It was 
no small matter for Jefferson to thus 

61 



Thomas antagonize the first-born sons of the 
Jefferson entire State of Virginia. Conceive, if 
you please, the mental status of the 
first-born sons who were then in 
possession of the estates of their dead 
fathers *s^ Conceive, if you will, the 
bitter opposition of the first-born sons 
who were still living in expectation 
of receiving the ancestral establish- 
ment in its entirety ^ Here was a 
powerful and wealthy class whom 
Jefferson antagonized at the expense 
of being called an anarchist and a 
demagogue, but time and the sense 
of decency of a higher civilization 
has demonstrated that Jefferson, the 
radical, was not a bidder for place 
and power when he introduced a bill 
against primogeniture. 
In addition to these three bills, he 
introduced, in the same legislature 
of 1777, a bill providing for universal 
education, beginning with what is 
to-day known as the common or the 
district school, and ending with what 
is to-day known as the state univer- 
sity. Let us, if possible, transport 

62 



ourselves into the conditions and Thomas 
environments of the men who Hved Jefferson 
in Jefferson's time, and we shall find 
that class known as the landed aris- 
tocracy and another class known as 
the "white trash," inferior to the 
negro slaves in the estimation of the 
landed aristocrats. There we find the 
people ruled by a clergy supported 
at the expense of the taxpayers >^^ 
There we find many of the ministers 
reaping a rich reward in the way of 
bonuses and compensation for acting 
as teachers and tutors, and thus we 
find two united influences, the land 
owners and the preachers, opposed, 
for selfish reasons, to the education 
of the children of the poor at the 
expense of the state, and so effective 
was this opposition to Jefferson's bill 
for universal education that the bill 
was defeated. 

At that time the ministers had two 
special privileges, one was to dictate 
religion on Sunday, and the other to 
sell education on Monday; in fact, 
the special privileges and property 

63 



Thomas rights of the preachers in education 
Jefferson and religion in the days of Jefferson's 
young manhood, remind me of a 
remark I once heard made by one 
who said that he kept all his property 
and all his religion in his wife's name. 
The preachers of Jefferson's time also 
remind me of a remark I heard made 
by Henry Ward Beecher, when he 
said from his pulpit in Plymouth 
Church: *'I have known a great 
many men so religious they would 
not shave themselves on Sunday, but 
they would shave their neighbors on 
Monday." 

Have I made it plain that this radical, 
Thomas Jefferson, was more radical 
and more courageous than the most 
radical of any of the radicals of your 
day and my day ? Jefferson found 
himself surrounded and hemmed in 
by an intellectual and social condition 
which required the teaching of dead 
languages, and the translation from 
one language into another, almost to 
the exclusion of any other form of 
intellectual activity. This process of 

64 



education was largely responsible for Thomas 
the petrified intellects of the Dark Jefferson 
Ages, where it was contended that 
*' nothing that is new is true, and 
nothing that is true is new ; " an age 
which branded scientific thought as 
a heresy and repudiated the spirit of 
invention as the manifestation of a 
witch or a devil. 

What sheer nonsense, this drumming 
and drumming away at Latin and 
Greek to the exclusion of electricity 
and chemistry! I believe in mental 
muscle ; I believe in the discipline of 
the brain by the act of translating 
from one language to another, but 
there is such a thing as overtraining 
in the translation of dead languages 
as well as overtraining in baseball 
and football, and other forms of ath- 
letic intoxication J^ This generation 
does not fully appreciate its indebt- 
edness to Jefferson the educator, nor 
its great indebtedness to Jefferson the 
legislator. It was Jefferson's mission 
to liberate the human mind from the 
routine repetition of classic literature. 

65 



Thomas It was Jefferson's mission to open 
Jefferson the human mind to the Hght and the 
Hghtning of God's increasing purpose. 
It was Jefferson's mission to prepare 
the way for the progress that has 
come as a result of the pubHc school 
system. Since the day when Jesus of 
Nazareth came to teach the father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of 
man, no teacher, no preacher, no 
legislator has brought to the millions 
of human beings a diviner or holier 
message than the bill for universal 
education introduced by Jefferson, 
the radical, in the little House of 
Burgesses in the Old Dominion in 
1777 "^ Then and there began the 
agitation which to-day has its best 
vindication in our common school 
system and in such institutions as the 
University of Michigan. 
I was taught Latin and Greek, but 
I thank God I was able to forget it, 
and I condemn my teachers for not 
having known enough to direct my 
hours, and days, and weeks, and 
months, and years to the study of 

66 



science, history & literature. Cf The Thomas 

business of the state should be more Jefferson 

than building penitentiaries and jails, 

and electing sheriffs and constables. 

It is fully as much the business of the 

statesman and the state to train the 

brain as it is the business of the clergy 

and the church to train the heart. I 

have no patience with that class of 

statesmanship which collects taxes 

for the sole purpose of placing a club 

in the hands of a policeman, a gun 

in the hands of a soldier, and a 

battleship upon the bosom of the 

ocean. I am one of those who agree 

with Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

that : 

Conquering may prove as lordly and complete 

a thing 
In lifting upward as in striking low. 

I am one of those who believe that 
the fame of Alexander, and Caesar 
and Napoleon should be cast upon 
the junk heap of curiosities of an 
obsolete age. Their military careers 
are as much out of date, &c as useless 
for instruction or inspiration, as are 

67 



Thomas the ox-cart and the corduroy road in 
Jefferson this day of steam and electric travel. 
C, Jefferson believed what the Japan- 
ese adopted thirty years ago as their 
national motto: *' Education is the 
basis of all progress." But Thomas 
Jefferson found the preachers and the 
wealthier classes opposed to his free 
school system, because it threatened 
to take away from the one class a 
few paltry pieces of silver, which they 
were accustomed to receive for their 
teaching, and from the other class 
a few extra dollars in the way of 
taxes for the support of the free 
schools »2^ This measure deprived 
Jefferson, the radical, of the influence 
of the rich, because they did not want 
their sons and daughters educated 
with the * * white trash, ' ' nor did they 
care to be taxed for the purpose of 
lifting the children of the poor to a 
position where, by education, they 
might easily prove themselves the 
superior, intellectually and morally, 
to those who had been reared in 
indolence and luxury. The combined 

68 



influences of these so-called upper Thomas 
classes — the so-called best society — Jefferson 
prevented the passage of this bill at 
this time. 

In Jefferson's young manhood he 
was unable to secure the establish- 
ment of the university, the grammar 
school or the primary school. His 
bill for a free school was defeated 
absolutely in 1777, nor did he make 
any substantial headway with his 
educational system until ten years 
after he had retired from the presi- 
dency of the United States; but 
Jefferson, Uke Socrates of Athens, 
and Jesus of Nazareth, was untiring 
and unwavering in his devotion to a 
principle, and having foreseen in his 
philosophic eye the great benefits of 
a free school system, was instant and 
constant in his advocacy of it, and 
finally there came some little evidence 
that his agitation was bearing fruit. 
CJ In 1819, he secured from the State 
Legislature a petty appropriation of 
fifteen thousand dollars to change 
Albemarle Academy into the Central 



Thomas College of Virginia, and a little later 
Jefferson he succeeded in having them call the 
institution the University of Virginia, 
of which he was the father & founder. 
Q At this time the people of Virginia 
lacked in conscience and intelligence 
sufficient to establish the common 
school. It remained for the State of 
Michigan and other western states to 
establish a school system extending 
from the district school through the 
high school to the state university. 
Calculate, if you can, the very great 
influence for good, for higher and 
nobler manhood and purer woman- 
hood, that has permeated every state 
of the United States as a result of 
the establishment of the University 
of Michigan ^ Its influence is not 
confined to the United States and 
Canada — it is world-wide. It is but 
a fair tribute to the University of 
Michigan and the citizenship of that 
state, to say, that in the State of 
Ohio in the city of Columbus, we 
have the Ohio State University, 
fashioned and patterned after the 
70 



University of Michigan, which is Thomas 
destined to become one of the great Jefferson 
educational institutions of the world ; 
an institution which, I believe, will 
do more for the people of Ohio than 
all its lawyers, all its editors, all its 
preachers, & all its doctors combined. 
C( Thomas Jefferson was the man who 
reformed our monetary system. It was 
he who brought about the decimal 
system, and induced our government 
to abandon the English system ^ 
Those of you who think this was a 
small matter, would have learned 
better had you been in Detroit at 
any time within the past few years, 
and seen how the people there have 
quarreled about whether they would 
use Eastern Standard Time, Central 
Standard Time or Sun Time. For 
several years the people of Detroit, 
it seems, had no other occupation 
except explaining to each other, and 
to visitors, which kind of time they 
were using in making their appoint- 
ments, and which kind of time they 
had in mind while explaining their 

71 



Thomas failure to keep their appointments. 
Jefferson In five minutes' time they could 
have agreed to either set all their 
watches a few minutes ahead, or to 
turn them back a few minutes and 
drop the subject forever. 
And so, in the days of Jefferson, the 
radical, it was a matter of much 
controversy whether they should give 
up the system of pounds, shillings 
and pence, and adopt the system of 
dollars, dimes and cents. Even to 
this day, in some parts of the country, 
the people are talking about shillings. 
C[I have not tried in this hurried 
review of his legislative efforts, to 
point out all the radical propositions 
of this greatest political philosopher 
of any age, but I have demonstrated, 
I am sure, not only that Jefferson 
was a radical in 1769, but that he 
was so radical that his greatest fol- 
lower, Abraham Lincoln, suffered 
martyrdom in 1865, for beheving with 
Jefferson in the emancipation of the 
black slave. 



72 




iHAT do we mean by a Thomas 
radical ? We mean a man Jefferson 
who pulls things up by 
the roots and examines 
them, shakes off the dirt 
and looks at them as 
they actually are, strips them of all 
the rubbish of superstition and the 
prejudice handed down from the Dark 
Ages; handed down from the time 
when men believed in alchemy and 
branded chemistry as heresy ; handed 
down by the benighted brains that 
never saw nor dreamed of an electric 
light. The radical in politics and in 
statesmanship is he whose intellect is 
controlled & dominated by the same 
holy and poetic purpose that inspired 
Tennyson to say : 

I doubt not through the ages one increasing 

purpose runs. 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the 

process of the suns. 

Lincoln was a radical when, on the 
floor of Congress, he denounced the 
message of President James K. Polk 
as a falsified statement concerning 

73 



Thomas conditions obtaining in the matter 
Jefferson of Texas and Mexico. Lincoln was a 
radical when he delivered his Cooper 
Institute speech, so radical indeed, 
that the New York Herald, the 
leading newspaper of that day, called 
him a baboon, monkey and buffoon. 
Lincoln was a radical when he issued 
the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
Jesus of Nazareth was a radical when 
He overturned the tables of the money 
changers in the Temple, and took a 
whip and drove the sordid hypocrites 
out of the House of God. 
Martin Luther was a radical when he 
repudiated the doctrine of the church 
concerning celibacy, & declared that 
he would not give up the love of his 
wife for all the wealth of Croesus. It 
was an exceedingly radical proposition 
in his day for a religious devotee to 
assert that the holiest and noblest and 
most helpful fellowship a man could 
have is the wife who understands. 
The English barons who forced the 
Magna Charta from King John were 
radicals, and the men who signed the 
74 



Declaration of Independence were Thomas 
radicals. Cowardice and conservatism Jefferson 
has not been the characteristic of any 
of the great leaders of any of the 
great reforms in the history of the 
world ^ Step by step the march of 
democracy, which is the march of the 
rights of man, has been accomplished 
under the banner and leadership of 
the radical .3* The people who have 
suffered under the heel of the tyrant 
have always been in the majority, 
and they are still in the majority, 
and they will continue to suffer under 
the debasing tyrannies of slaveocracy , 
czarocracy and trust ocracy so long as 
God is unable to find or create enough 
radicals to brave the pains and the 
penalties of persecution, ostracism, 
slander, libel and assassination. 
All the good things of the world 
come up from the people, grow up 
from below, from the roots, if you 
please. Even God Himself, with all 
His chemistry, with all His power, 
and with all His knowledge, has 
never been able to fashion a great 

75 



Thomas man or a noble woman either in the 
Jefferson palace or the castle *^ He finds it 
necessary, when He wants a Jesus of 
Nazareth, to go to the manger; when 
He needs an Abraham Lincoln He 
goes to the humblest and meanest 
little cabin in the State of Kentucky. 
And every time some divine leader 
comes up branding social & economic 
bodies as whited sepulchers, every 
time a leader inspired from on High 
puts in his appearance, the opposing 
conservatives find themselves branded 
by this » earnest radical as hypocrites 
and Pharisees. 

One of the sad things in the history 
of the world is that all the hypocrites 
and Pharisees in the age of Jesus of 
Nazareth did not, like Judas, go and 
hang themselves. Unfortunately, the 
hypocrites and Pharisees have never 
stopped propagating and multiplying 
their kind and now we have a vast 
overproduction in every country of 
the world. 

It was Jefferson's supreme purpose 
to make men think. The Declaration 
76 



of Independence was a political sum- Thomas 
mary and crystallization of all the Jefferson 
moral purpose of the laws of Moses 
and all the teachings of the Divine 
Master, who taught that you should 
*'love your neighbor as yourself." 
Coming at the time it did, its chief 
purpose was to set men thinking of 
their political rights. 
The purpose of the law of religious 
freedom for Virginia was to set men 
and women thinking of their religious 
rights, likewise the bill for universal 
education was to set men and women 
thinking of the incalculable & sacred 
advantages of an educated mind as 
against one darkened and enslaved by 
ignorance, superstition and prejudice. 
The commercial instinct tells us that 
' * he is a benefactor who makes two 
blades of grass grow where only one 
grew before, ' ' but God, in His divine 
messages, is whispering the idea to 
every cultivated & civilized intellect 
that the supreme benefactors of all 
ages, the holiest and noblest teachers 
and preachers of all religions, are 

77 



Thomas those who can make two thoughts 
Jefferson grow where only one grew before. 
C[ Thought — free, untrammeled and 
unprejudiced thought — is the mother 
of invention ^ The unequaled and 
unparalleled strides of progress along 
all the lines of transportation, mech- 
anism, chemistry and electricity, in 
the last generation, are due entirely 
to the ever increasing intellectual 
purposes & privileges of those minds 
which have been liberated from the 
fetiches, superstitions and prejudices 
of an obsolete age ^ Thought is 
the greatest architect, the greatest 
sculptor, the greatest painter in the 
universe ^ There can be no higher 
architecture than the building of a 
head; there is no higher sculpture 
than the chiseling of a face ; there is 
no higher portraiture than the paint- 
ing of an expression, and nothing can 
prevent you from building a good 
head, or chiseling a good face, or 
painting a good expression except 
your own thoughts, and it was with 
this faith and with this belief that I 
78 



wrote in several of your albums here Thomas 
to-day, "You are what you think, Jefferson 
not what you think you are," and if 
to-day, on this anniversary of the 
birthday of American liberty, you 
are thinking about justice to your 
neighbor, if you are thinking about 
equality, if you are thinking of loving 
others as you love yourself, if you are 
thinking of doing unto others as you 
would have them do unto you, then, 
my friends, you fully understand the 
meaning of the word "democracy," 
and if you understand the meaning 
of the word ' * democracy, ' ' you will 
not be merely passive or indifferent or 
conservative in the face of so much 
injustice and inequality in our great 
republic. 

Democracy is the doctrine of doing 
things. True democracy is not an 
organization for the benefit of a few 
spoilsmen. There is a wide difference 
between the statesmanship of dem- 
ocracy and the politics of democracy, 
as wide as the difference between a 
statesman & a politician. A statesman 

79 



Thomas is a man seeking an opportunity to 
Jefferson do something for everybody, and the 
poHtician is a man seeking an oppor- 
tunity to do everybody for something. 
C{ If you are a Democrat or if you 
are a Republican, you may be a good 
partisan, or you may be a good citi- 
zen, and there is a wide gulf between 
the two. If the party to which you 
belong does not make you love all 
humanity better and better each day, 
then it is high time that you change 
your party. I once heard a Quaker 
woman preach a sermon, in which 
she said: *'If thy religion doesn't 
change thee, then thee had better 
change thy religion. ' ' 
And so I say in this message, that 
if your political party does n't day 
by day inspire you with a nobler and 
sweeter love for all your neighbors, 
then it is high time that you change 
your political religion ^ The true 
Democrat is the radical who wants 
to make our eighty millions of people 
each and all educated, self-respecting, 
neighbor- loving men and women, 

80 



recognizing equality without regard Thomas 
to sex, & without regard to previous Jefferson 
condition of rehgious or economic 
servitude. True democracy is a swarm 
of bees, each & all ready and willing 
to carry its share of honey to the 
hive, and each and all ready to sting 
the drones and cast them out. 
As I said before, God Himself cannot 
make a man or woman worthy of 
consideration except in the crucible 
of industry ^ Work is not a curse. 
Indolence is a beastly mother, breed- 
ing no high purpose and no sweet 
sentiments, breeding nothing but the 
imps of selfishness ^ Earning one's 
bread by the sweat of one's brow — 
whether on the outside or the inside 
— is not a curse ^ God help the 
children of the rich, the poor can 
work. I have no patience with the 
rich loafer, I think much less of him 
than I do of the poor loafer, and I 
have no more respect for the female 
loafer than I have for the male loafer. 
A loafer is a loafer — nothing more 
need be said, nothing worse can be 

81 



Thomas said. Q It doesn't make any difFer- 
Jefferson ence to me what the color or the sex, 
I am a strict constructionist on the 
word "equality," and the only thing 
worth living for is an opportunity to 
work, and the greatest privilege of 
work is the building of a brain. The 
honor of a bee is the storing of the 
hive with honey, and the salvation 
and immortality of the human being 
is the storing of the human brain 
with thought and love. I never felt 
quite so much pleased as when I saw 
carved deeply on that chapel door of 
the Roy crofters this thought : '*Life 
without industry is guilt; Industry 
without art is brutality." If I had 
traveled a thousand miles to get here, 
and could carry back to my home 
only that one thought, and have it 
with me throughout the rest of my 
life, I would consider the time and 
the expense of the trip as the best 
investment ever made ^ I repeat: 
*' Life without industry is guilt; 
Industry without art is brutality." 
Q According to my understanding 

82 



of Thomas Jefferson, the radical, this Thomas 

was his conception of the principle Jefferson 

and sentiments which should govern 

the life and career of every American 

citizen. 

I think my friend Powderly, and 

Carroll D. Wright, and others who 

are working on the statistics of labor, 

tell us that if all the men and women 

in this country were to work two 

hours and thirty minutes a day, we 

could produce as much food, clothing 

and shelter as each of us needs and 

now uses. Why is it, then, that a 

mother's work is never done, and 

that men are still driven eight, ten 

or twelve hours a day ? Why should 

we not work two hours and thirty 

minutes a day, and spend the rest of 

our time in hanging pictures on the 

wall, putting beautiful art glass in the 

windows, covering our floors with 

carpets, listening to sweet music, and 

holding communion with the master 

minds of the centuries, whose books 

would be so easily within our reach 

in these days of Roycroft industry 

83 



Thomas and ingenuity? Q I have heard it said 
Jefferson that a country that can raise good 
hogs can raise good men, but I am 
afraid that the commercial spirit of 
this age is showing a disposition to 
consolidate the two and make mere 
hogs of the men in order to increase 
the commercial assets of the country. 
Greed and vanity are the examples 
furnished us by the trustocracy, and 
the young manhood and the young 
womanhood of this country seem to 
be more desirous of imitating this 
so-called social ''Four Hundred," 
than to practise the radicalism of 
Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, 
Benjamin Franklin, Washington and 
the Adamses. 

It is vanity, it is selfishness, which 
develops and establishes trustocracy 
in the land t^ This desire to strut 
and pose as the superior of your 
neighbors, is the actual cause and 
substance of the parasite who lives 
on the labor of others. The difference 
between the parasite and other men 
is only a matter of degree. The farmer 

84 



is very apt to be a man who wants Thomas 

to own all the adjoining farms. The Jefferson 

merchant in the city is very apt to 

be a man who wants to own all the 

stores in the city. This greed to be 

the whole thing and to own the earth 

is not solely confined within the thick 

pachyderm of kings and czars. 

I remember the story of a preacher 

in a country community, who went 

from house to house soliciting money 

to repair the church «^ One of the 

farmers replied : "I can't subscribe, 

I need all my money. " " What for ? " 

said the preacher. '*I want to buy 

another farm." *'What for?" said 

the preacher. "To raise more corn," 

said the farmer. "What for?" said 

the preacher. * ' To fatten more hogs, ' ' 

said the farmer. "What for?" said 

the preacher. ' ' To sell and get more 

money," said the farmer. "What 

for ?" said the preacher. "To buy 

more land, ' ' said the farmer. 

And thus, my friends, we are all 

living in a civilization where the 

tendency and the temptation is to 

85 



Thomas get into the treadmill of more land, 
Jefferson more corn, more hogs, more money. 
Oh, for an age and a civilization 
where the universal cry shall not be 
more land, more corn, more hogs, 
& more money, but more men, more 
women, more brain and more heart I 
If we are to be monopolists, let us 
be monopolists of the intellectual 
and spiritual substance, with which 
God's universe is stored so full, so 
high, so deep and so wide that there 
is enough for all of us. The dollar 
should be regarded as only a crowbar 
to open the safe of civilization. 
Doctor Gladden stands forth to-day 
as conspicuous against one of the 
grossest crimes of our civilization as 
did Abraham Lincoln against negro 
slavery. The great power which the 
Rockefellers have acquired in this 
country is by the corrupt use of their 
money. The system with which John 
D. Rockefeller has been identified is 
one which has depended largely upon 
corruption for its greatest power. It 
is a system which to-day furnishes 

86 



the corruption funds in the cities and Thomas 

states of this Union by which the Jefferson 

nominations of the legislative and 

even the judicial candidates are made. 

City councilmen, state legislators, 

national legislators, and judges ahke 

receive their nominations in both the 

parties in many communities at the 

hands of hired political bosses, whose 

corruption funds are furnished them 

by the men who represent the great 

corporate interests such as the steam 

railways, the street railways, the 

Standard Oil and other institutions 

which live and fatten by the special 

privileges secured from the hands of 

the puppets placed in power by this 

so-called system. 

And it was high time that Doctor 

Washington Gladden, or some other 

great and courageous representative 

of God's kingdom on earth, should 

point the finger of scorn at this school 

of hypocrites and Pharisees j^ I am 

proud of the fact that Washington 

Gladden is an honored and eminent 

citizen of my own city of Columbus ; 

87 



Thomas that he has for years been recognized 
Jefferson as the ablest man in the pulpit in the 
State of Ohio, and all good men and 
all good women ought to be thankful 
that this man had the courage and 
character to point the finger of scorn 
at John D. Rockefeller and say, 
"Thou art the man." 
What we need most in this age is a 
JefFersonian radical, and such choice 
characters as Washington Gladden, 
Ida Tarbell, Lincoln StefFens, John 
Brisben Walker, Thomas Lawson, 
S. S. McClure, Wilham Randolph 
Hearst, Elbert Hubbard and Eugene 
Debs are but a few of the patriots of 
this day and this generation who will 
lead the millions to a higher plane of 
intellectual light and moral purpose 
than that ever attained in the past. 
H We have Washington Gladden 
and Ida Tarbell to thank for the 
eleven millions of money contributed 
to the cause of education by Mr. 
John D. Rockefeller within the past 
few weeks. I like the argument made 
by Mr. Rockefeller in support of my 

88 



hero, Thomas Jefferson, the radical. Thomas 

This contribution of eleven million Jefferson 

dollars by Rockefeller is a confession 

by him that in order to pm-chase 

respectability he must make gigantic 

contributions to the cause of free 

education, a proof on his part that 

Jefferson's bill for free education, 

although it was defeated in 1777 — 

ignominiously defeated — was a bill 

so sacred and holy that Rockefeller 

confesses that the surest way he can 

divert public attention from the wave 

of contempt which is about to engulf 

him is by contributions to the cause 

of education. 

By these gifts Rockefeller concedes 

that the great mission of American 

manhood is not to acquire and retain 

millions, but that the noblest cause 

to be served in this grand American 

Republic is to furnish an opportunity 

to the children of the poor to blossom 

a heart and ripen a brain equal to that 

of Plato, Demosthenes, Aristotle, 

Socrates and Pericles e^ These five 

choice intellects were the product of 

89 



Thomas the little city of Athens almost in a 
Jefferson single generation. One might well 
say that they lived so near each other 
that they shook hands each with the 
others, and the question that often 
comes to me is why is it not possible 
for such minds as these to be reared 
in a single generation in all the great 
cities of America? Along scientific 
lines, in the fields of transportation, 
machinery and electricity, we have 
the equals if not the superiors of 
these intellectual giants of ancient 
times, but let us not forget that the 
time is ripe for giants and heroes in 
the science of government, that we 
may lift this entire republic into a 
higher atmosphere of equality. 
You men and women who are here 
from all parts of the United States, 
honoring this your Mecca, are doing 
a great work each in your respective 
communities emphasizing the urgent 
necessity of thinking, emphasizing 
the necessity of exercising the brain 
and the heart in all the light and 
science of this electric age. And if in 

90 



each of your communities you are Thomas 

exercising the heart and the brain of Jefferson 

equahty, then you are devoting your 

energies to the cause of the equahty 

of the sexes in every particular. The 

same Wendell Phillips, the same 

William Lloyd Garrison, the same 

Benjamin Lundy who advocated the 

liberty of the negro slave, began the 

agitation for woman's equality ,4^^ 

Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker, 

who taught William Lloyd Garrison 

his first lessons against negro slavery, 

was reared in a Quaker home, reared 

in a Quaker church, married to a 

Quaker girl, believed and preached 

and practised the Quaker doctrine of 

equality of the sexes. 

I hope that each and every one of us 

may take a new courage and a new 

resolution from this East Aurora 

meeting, and go home determined 

not only for that equality which will 

level down the trustocracy to the 

plane of all democracy, but level up 

the women of our great republic to 

a plane of democracy and equality, 

91 



Thomas making the Declaration of 1776 not 
Jefferson merely a prophecy and a dream, but 
a reality and a consummation. 
The only quarrel I have with you, 
Elbert Hubbard and Alice Hubbard, 
is that you have not placed enough 
pictures of the great women of the 
world on the walls of this institution. 
You have a room dedicated to George 
Eliot, and another one to Elizabeth 
Barrett Browning, but you should 
not forget there was an American 
woman who preached a sermon that 
was greater than any ever preached 
by her great and immortal brother. I 
refer to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her 
Uncle Torns Cabin did more for 
liberty and equality than did all the 
sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, 
the greatest of American preachers. 
There are other women also whose 
pictures and whose names should 
decorate the walls of this Roycroft 
University, and I am sure when we 
come back on some other occasion, 
we shall see that the Hubbards have 
done their full duty in this direction 

92 



as they have in so many others y^^ Thomas 

KH Not only would I have you take Jefferson 

back to your respective homes the 

thought that the time is ripe for 

legislation and for amendments to 

the constitution that will secure the 

equality of women, but there is also 

another great reform that ought to 

be in operation before the close of 

President Roosevelt's term, and that 

is, the improvement of the postal 

service by the installation of the 

telegraph in every post-office of the 

republic. There are only twenty-five 

thousand Western Union offices in 

this country, while there are over 

seventy-five thousand post-offices .3* 

This leaves more than fifty thousand 

centers of population where there is 

no way to communicate thought by 

electricity. 

No one can explain why the national 

government has been so dilatory in 

this except by the same explanation 

which must be given in shame for so 

many other short -comings in our 

governmental affairs. It is estimated 

93 



Thomas that thirty words could be sent by 
Jefferson wire, no matter what the distance, 
for the petty sum of five cents. In 
other words, instead of sending a 
letter by using a two- cent stamp, we 
would use a five-cent stamp to send 
a telegram, whether we sent it to the 
neighboring town or sent it to the 
Pacific coast. 

In Franklin's day, when post-offices 
and post-roads were established, we 
carried thought on horseback at the 
rate of forty miles a day ^ At this 
time we are carrying thought on the 
iron horse at the rate of sixty miles 
an hour. What reason can be given 
why we should not be using God's 
electricity to send messages of thirty 
words three thousand miles in thirty 
seconds at a cost of only five cents ? 
C( More than seventy bills have been 
introduced in Congress to install a 
postal telegraph, but not one of them 
has been passed. Out of the nineteen 
committees appointed to investigate 
the matter, seventeen have reported 
favorably, and yet we do not have 

94 



the postal telegraph, and the only Thomas 

opposition to it among the eighty Jefferson 

millions of people is the one family 

that owns and controls the Western 

Union. If the people understood the 

science of government, they would 

soon call to a reckoning those who 

represent them at Washington and 

have this reform without any further 

delay. 

In a recent issue of The Philistine 

our friend Hubbard published John 

Wanamaker's statement about the 

parcel post *^ Mr. Wanamaker, in 

explaining why he could not get 

Congress to act, stated that there 

were only five arguments against the 

parcel post, and these five arguments 

were the Adams Express Company, 

the United States Express Company, 

the American Express Company, the 

Wells Fargo Express Company and 

the Southern Express Company »^^ 

CE And so, my friends, there is only 

one argument against the installation 

of the postal telegraph, and that is 

the Western Union. 

95 



Thomas How long will it be before you use 
Jefferson your heads on a question like this 
and become radicals ? How long will 
it be before President Roosevelt will 
be radical enough to call the attention 
of Congress to the urgent necessity 
of investigating this great trust that 
has a monopoly of the privilege and 
right to transmit thought by wire ? 
The national government used the 
people's money to enable Professor 
Morse to make the experiments with 
an electric telegraph, which resulted 
in sending the first message between 
Baltimore and Washington e^ Will 
some one explain how it happens 
that to-day the national government 
and the eighty millions of people 
have been cheated out of their legal 
title to this great property right ? 
C{ You and I know that there is no 
sensible argument against the postal 
telegraph. You and I know there is 
no good and sufficient reason why the 
post-office system in this country 
should be inferior to that of most 
European countries. You and I know 

96 



that there is no good reason why the Thomas 
American government should not Jefferson 
avail itself of the use of electricity 
in transmitting thought. If Franklin 
was right in carrying thought on 
horseback, if the governmental poHcy 
was correct in transferring the burden 
from the horse to the locomotive, 
then why should we not take the 
next step and make use of God*s 
electricity for the benefit of all the 
people ? 

I insist upon it that the best is none 
too good for the poorest and the 
humblest in this land. I insist upon 
it that it would be better for this 
government to stop its expenditures 
on an increasing army and navy, and 
instead make an appropriation for the 
construction of the postal telegraph 
system at once. 

I know there are those who call 
themselves conservatives who are 
opposed to any reform, and opposed 
to all progress. We had conservatives 
in the days of George Washington. 
We now speak of them with scorn 

97 



Thomas and call them Tories. In every age, 
Jefferson in every race, in every nation, we 
have that class of catering, cringing 
things that call themselves conserva- 
tives. It was the conservative that 
crucified Jesus; it was the conserva- 
tive that executed John Brown; it 
was the conservative that murdered 
Lovejoy ; it was the conservative that 
spit upon Wendell Phillips & stoned 
William Lloyd Garrison in the streets 
of Boston. With this array of facts 
against the conservative, it is high 
time that he be known and branded 
as a public enemy. 
I do not consider it any honor or 
credit to a man to say that he was a 
conservative when the great crime of 
negro slavery was here. Neither is it 
a credit to a man to say that he is a 
conservative to-day when the great 
crime of female slavery is here. Nor 
is it any credit to a man to say that 
he is a conservative, when one trust, 
when one monopoly, deprives the 
eighty millions of people of the right 
to transmit their thoughts and to 

98 



transact their business by the use of 
God's electricity at actual cost. 
Property rights have had their day. 
We have talked all too long about 
vested rights. The hour is at hand 
when the men and women of highest 
moral purpose, not only here but in 
other countries, have stepped onto 
that upper plane where they are 
demanding of governments that they 
consider human rights, and moral 
rights and sentimental rights ^ The 
civilization of the coming age will 
be known as the age of love, as the 
age of affection and as the age of 
sentiment. Here, on this side of the 
ocean, or nowhere, the human race 
will be lifted up to that high plane 
of equality where the majority will 
no longer be subordinated by the 
tyrants, where the greatest good to 
the greatest number will mean not 
merely commercial assets but will 
mean intellectual and spiritual good. 
CJ Here in this country, or nowhere, 
we shall rear the men and women fit 
for higher and nobler things than the 

99 



Thomas accumulation of money, and the 
Jefferson concentration of power within the 
possession of a few, that they may 
use it to dominate and tyrannize over 
the millions of their fellow citizens. 
I am tired of reading in literature 
that ** He was the noblest Roman of 
them all." I am exceedingly anxious 
to live to see the time when the very 
highest manhood and womanhood of 
the world will make it necessary for 
the new literature to describe the 
highest attainment intellectually and 
morally by saying of some heroic 
personality, "He was the noblest 
American of them all." 
Thomas Jefferson was aware that the 
greatest citizenship was possible only 
in a country that had the greatest 
intellectual liberty. Thomas Jefferson 
was a philosopher, and he was more 
than that, he was a prophet. To his 
keen insight and high moral intellect 
it was clear that the mission of this 
country was to produce men and 
women rather than dollars, pig iron 
and pork. From 1769 down to 1826, 

100 



a period of fifty-seven years, Thomas 
Jefferson's life was dedicated and 
consecrated to the sacred cause of the 
intellectual and spiritual property of 
every human being, and well might 
he say on his deathbed : * * I have done 
for my country and for all mankind 
all that I could do, and I now resign 
my soul without fear to my God." 
Even in this dying expression he 
recognized and preached the fact that 
in doing God's service & accoimting 
for the same, it was only necessary 
to report to Peter at the gate, **I 
have done for my country and for all 
mankind all that I could do." He 
knew that Peter would ask him no 
questions as to whether he believed 
in * ' infant damnation, ' ' or whether 
he believed in *' sprinkling " or in 
"immersion." He knew that On 
High the only test of your religion 
would be applied by an inquiry into 
your acts in behalf of your neighbors. 
CJ That Thomas Jefferson was both 
sincerity and integrity personified, is 
best shown by the memorandum left 

101 



Thomas indicating what he desired inscribed 
Jefferson upon his tombstone ^€^> It was his 
request that his last resting place be 
marked by a simple granite shaft, and 
that upon this granite these words 
should be carved: 

HERE LIES BURIED 

THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Author of 

The Declaration of Independence 

of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom 

and Father of the University of Virginia 

Mark these words, mark these three 
recitals, concerning equality, religious 
freedom and education; each and all 
of them represent the life work of a 
man who recognized no other test or 
criterion of manhood or womanhood 
except intellectual attainment. 
We have just closed the greatest of 
all the Worlds' Fairs. The St. Louis 
Exposition cost three times as many 
millions of dollars as it cost Thomas 
Jefferson, President of the United 
States, to purchase half a continent. 
Three times as much was spent in 

102 



preparing to celebrate this one act of 
Jefferson's presidential career as was 
expended for the entire Louisiana 
Purchase, and yet Jefferson himself 
did not deem it worthy of mention. 
Neither was his character blemished 
with that kind of vanity which would 
care to record the fact that he had 
been twice elected President of the 
United States. Material & mercenary 
things, worldly fame and glory, did 
not appeal to his philosophic mind. 
I am doubtful whether he would have 
suggested any inscription had it not 
been God's purpose to have Thomas 
Jefferson proclaim even from the 
granite that marks his last resting 
place that the radical, and the radical 
alone, is the man who keeps the fires 
of progress burning upon the altars 
of equality, religious freedom, and 
education. 

Jefferson was the greatest political 
philosopher, the greatest political 
agitator, the greatest political radical 
the world has ever known, and I 
know of no higher tribute to pay to 

103 



Thomas Thomas Jefferson than to remind you 
Jefferson again of Lincoln's declaration that 
he never entertained a sentiment 
which he did not draw from the life 
and writings of Thomas Jefferson, 
and the sweet sentiment and loving 
charity of Lincoln's brain and heart 
were never better expressed, than 
when he said to one of his friends : 
"I hope it will be said of me when 
I am dead and gone, by those who 
know me best, that I always plucked 
a thistle and planted a flower when 
I thought a flower would grow." 
I know of no language sweeter or 
more poetic than this expression of 
Lincoln, the radical disciple, who was 
great enough to admit that his own 
ripe and patriotic soul was but the 
result of the radical teaching of his 
great master, Thomas Jefferson. 
In this great age, with manifestations 
of God's increasing purpose on every 
hand, I am not a pessimist, believing 
that the most patriotic souls are in 
the grave. I believe there are to-day 
American men and women with a 

104 



patriotic purpose as great as that of Thomas 
Jefferson and Lincoln, and I believe Jefferson 
that you and I will live to see the 
names of other great radicals carved 
in God's firmament, high above the 
horizon, shining like the stars of 
eternity, more enduring than the 
granite over Jefferson's grave, in 
memory of the heroic struggles, the 
sacrifices, the ostracism, persecution, 
martyrdom & victories of radicalism. 
CJ And it remains for you and me, 
in the exercise and expression of our 
highest patriotic devotion to the 
perpetuity of this great American 
Republic, to thank God for every 
radical He has ever given to the 
children of men, and to demonstrate 
the sincerity of our thankfulness, not 
by slandering, but by praising and 
immortalizing the life and career of 
the greatest of American radicals, 
Thomas Jefferson. 



105 



Here endeth the Two Articles on 
Thomas Jefferson, written by Elbert 
Hubbard and John J. Lentz, and 
Printed with Rubricated Side-heads 
on Italian Hand- Made Paper, by 
The Roycrofters, at their Shop, 
which is in East Aurora, Erie Co. , 
New York, U. S. A. MCMVl 



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